Tag: Pushing Daisies (1-10 of 24)

By the time they have their third or fourth show on the air, most successful television showrunners have a favorite crop of actors they continually draw from. Joss Whedon and Shonda Rhimes often revisit familiar faces when casting their projects, as does Bryan Fuller. He’s most known for Dead Like Me, Wonderfalls, Pushing Daisies, pilots turned one-off TV movies Mockingbird Lane and High Moon, and, currently, Hannibal.

Fuller frequently recasts the same talented actors in his projects—sometimes even to play the exact same role on multiple shows. His imaginative and visually inspired works are all generally assumed to take place in the same universe, with company and brand names also often popping up across multiple series.

As we anxiously await the third-season premiere of Hannibal this Thursday, June 4, on NBC, let’s take a look at 13 actors and actresses who have made multiple appearances in the Fullerverse.Read More

Parks and Recreation was lauded for its combination of comedy and earnest sweetness. The people of Pawnee, Indiana, are “first in friendship, fourth in obesity,” and they proved the former to us for seven seasons. The characters love each other, love the work they do (even as underappreciated public servants), and taught us to celebrate Galentine’s Day, waffles, and ourselves (Treat yo’ self!).

Very few shows allow themselves as much happiness as Parks and Recreation did. So many shows are gritty and dark, or concern us with which major character is being killed off this week. Nothing is wrong with that; I love a lot of shows that raise my blood pressure in a very real and probably unhealthy way. But sometimes you need to balance it out with shows that make you smile every single time you watch an episode. Parks and Recreation was one of those shows.

Now that it’s gone, I want to reflect on other shows that celebrated friendship, love, and optimism, and were unafraid to be bright spots in a cynical and dark world. There aren’t many, but here are a few shows that exemplified a few of the qualities that made us love Parks so much:Read More

With its bright colors, lavish costumes, and alliterative names, it’s only fitting that Pushing Daisies would have a narrator to round out its pop-up-book aesthetic. Our narrator, though, is more than a gimmick designed to give the show some style. He’s also a necessity. The plot is tangled, Ned’s gift comes with a lot of caveats, and everyone is keeping secrets from everyone else. If not for the narrator, we might not have even made it to a second season, because no one would ever know what was happening. As we send this show off with one last recap, let’s give it up for the narrator.

He earns his keep in the opening minutes of the finale, which finally make sense of Lily and Vivian’s history. Vivian was born with a heart defect, and, though it was remedied, her parents still treated her with extra care. They taught Lily to always put her interests behind those of her sister, which Lily did, until she slept with Vivian’s fiancé. She hid the fact that Chuck was the product of that union, telling herself that she was doing it to spare Vivian the pain, but her motives may have also been a little selfish; by sparing her sister, she spared herself from the full consequences of her betrayal.

The latest—and, as it turns out, last—episode to focus on Emerson Cod goes a long way toward clarifying his backstory, particularly where his daughter is concerned. Emerson met the mother of his child when a famous dam builder named Roland Stingwell hired him to tail his fiancée, Emily von Alastair. Emily and Emerson struck up a romance, and she told him the truth: Her real name was Lila Robinson, and she was running a con on Roland in order to steal a rare jewel called the Dam Ruby.

When Lila got pregnant, she broke it off with Roland and promised Emerson that she’d clean up her act, but the pull of the ruby was too strong. She couldn’t find it, so she stole his money and fled town, taking their daughter, Penny, with her. Roland channeled his frustration into building the Papen County Dam and running the city water system, until he turned up dead. Now, Roland’s sister has hired Emerson to find out what happened. The twist (aside from the one in Roland’s neck) is this: Roland names Lila as his killer.

Maybe the best thing about Olive Snook is that she’s a sidekick in our story who refuses to be a sidekick in her own life. It’s been that way since she was a kid. Her parents were more focused on throwing parties than they were on her, so she snuck out of the house and hid in a nearby car, which got hijacked by two petty thieves. The men, Jerry Holmes and Buster Bustamente, wanted to return Olive to her family at once, but she refused to tell them anything. She ended up staying with them for the two happiest days of her childhood, only to be sent home to parents who hadn’t noticed her absence. When Jerry and Buster shamed them for it, the Snooks had them arrested for kidnapping.

Olive wrote to Jerry and Buster every week while they were in prison. Now they’ve busted out, and they want Olive’s help to get across the border. (What border? It doesn’t matter. Whichever one the roaming hamlet of Coeur d’Coeurs is closest to this week.) Ned decides to help, partially because he’s sworn off touching dead people in favor of regular problem solving, and partially because Jerry and Buster think that he’s marrying Olive. It turns out that she wasn’t entirely truthful in those letters.

In the wake of her dad’s sudden getaway, Chuck wants to believe that he stayed close to look out for her. She might want to ask Olive how it really feels to be protected all the time, because Olive is over it. There’s so much that Ned, Emerson, and Chuck don’t tell her. One week she’s a proud member of the P.I. team, and the next they’re shutting her out. They only keep her out of cases that involve Ned’s magic finger, but she doesn’t know that, and at this point, there’s no reason why she shouldn’t. Who would Olive tell? Who’s more important in her life than the Pie Hole team?

Lily and Vivian are the only other people Olive cares about, and it’s Vivian who brings them their latest case. Not realizing that Dwight Dixon is dead, she hires Emerson to find him. Emerson refuses, so Vivian takes her request to the Norwegians, a rival investigative team. Chuck asks Olive to convince Vivian to drop it, but Olive finds herself saying the same things to Vivian that everyone always says to her: She’s protecting her from the truth for her own good. Olive doesn’t want to be that person, and she starts to question who she’s really helping.

By this point in its second season, Pushing Daisies has all but abandoned the idea that everything should wrap up nicely at the end of an episode. Our characters still solve a case a week, but their personal lives are no less messy for it, and their problems build on each other by the episode. There’s a sense of chaotic momentum to this show that’s really exciting, especially because it moves so confidently so early in its run. This week in confident chaos: Ned has just discovered that Chuck kept her dad alive, and she chose not to tell him about it.

On the roof of the Pie Hole, Chuck apologizes for lying, but she admits that she isn’t sorry for all of this extra time with her dad. Ned understands; he felt the same when he brought her back to life. As Chuck wraps him in a tarp and embraces him, they promise to work this out together, but before they can come up with a game plan, a murderer puts on a light show. Lighthouse owner Nora McQuoddy has been killed and pinned against the lamp, and the silhouette of her dead body is now reflected in the sky for the town to see.

Ned doesn’t want to be at the Comfort Food Cook-Off this year. He and Olive used to run the place: Two years ago, they almost took the grand prize, but Muffin Buffalo (hello, Wonderfalls) narrowly edged out the victory, maybe by cheating. Last year, they skipped the event because Ned had just brought Chuck back to life, and last night, he and Chuck brought her dad back to life.

Ned took 30 seconds to ask about Dwight Dixon—who’s very dangerous, according to Charles Charles, but won’t do anything as long as he’s got the pocket watch—and Chuck took the last 30 to say hello and goodbye. She’s been quiet ever since, and Ned wants to be with her. (“Are we weird now because I did it with your dad?”) Chuck has to force him to go bake blue-ribbon pies with Olive.

Ned is a stress baker. He’s also a professional baker. That’s his secret: He’s always stressed. He has an extra reason to panic now, though, as the mysterious Dwight Dixon is officially dating Vivian. Since Dwight has met Chuck, it’s only a matter of time before he realizes that she’s Vivian’s niece, presumed dead but very much alive.

And the situation is even more complicated than Ned can guess: Dwight has already dug up Chuck’s coffin to retrieve her father’s pocket watch, only to find it missing both the watch and the dead girl. He doesn’t know Chuck’s face yet, but he knows that she’s out there somewhere.Read More

Ned definitely didn’t come by his magic touch genetically, because there’s nothing less magical than the permanent disappearing act that his father had down to a science. Leaving young Ned at boarding school was only the dress rehearsal to his next trick: abandoning Maurice and Ralston, Ned’s half-brothers, at a magic show. It fell to the Great Herrmann to tell the boys that their father wasn’t coming back, so he sugarcoated it. Their father was an important man. He just had important man things to do. The boys latched on to Herrmann and grew up to be magicians themselves.Read More

Expression Of JoyThe Brady Bunch: Groovy! The Bradys: Ritual hugging Married…With Children: ”Oh, great.” Thirtysomething: ”Of course I’m happy for you. Really. But what about me? Why does it always have to be about you? The Flintstones: ”Yabba-dabba doo

Expression Of Rage

The Brady Bunch: ”Hmmm…” The Bradys: ”If you back away from something you really want, then you’re a quitter!” (the angriest any Brady has ever been) Married…With Children: ”Aaagh, God, take me from this miserable life!” Thirtysomething: ”I’m not angry, OK?” The Flintstones: ”Willllmaaaa!”

Typical ProblemThe Brady Bunch: Marcia and her rival both want to be the prom queen. The Bradys: Bobby gets paralyzed. Married…With Children: Al doesn’t buy his family Christmas presents. Thirtysomething: Nancy gets cancer. The Flintstones: Fred and Barney are staying out too late.

Typical SolutionThe Brady Bunch: The prom committee decides to have two queens. The Bradys: Bobby gets married. Married…With Children: They hate him. Thirtysomething: If only we knew… The Flintstones: Wilma and Betty decide to follow them.

Attitude Toward SexThe Brady Bunch: Never heard of it The Bradys: Omigod — even Cindy does it! Married…With Children: Peg: Yes. Al: No. Thirtysomething: They didn’t get all those kids by accident. The Flintstones: Prehistoric

How Spouses FightThe Brady Bunch: They don’t. The Bradys: Infrequently, but it happens Married…With Children: Tooth and nail Thirtysomething: They stop talking The Flintstones: Fred and Barney go bowling while Wilma and Betty max out their charge cards.

How Kids Get Into TroubleThe Brady Bunch: Greg takes a puff of a cigarette. The Bradys: Carol’s grandson steals her business cards and sticks them in the spokes of Bobby’s wheelchair. Married…With Children: By committing felonies Thirtysomething: Ethan plays with a forbidden toy rocket. The Flintstones: They don’t.

How They’re Punished

The Brady Bunch: ”It’s not what you did, honey — it’s that you couldn’t come to us.” The Bradys ”Next time, ask.” Married…With Children: By the authorities Thirtysomething: It blows up in his face. The Flintstones: They’re not.

What Family Does For FunThe Brady Bunch: Takes special three-part vacations to Hawaii and the Grand Canyon The Bradys: Has flashbacks Married…With Children: Exchanges insults Thirtysomething: Talks The Flintstones: Attends showings of The Monster at the Bedrock Drive-In

Unsolved MysteriesThe Brady Bunch: How exactly did Carol’s first husband and Mike’s first wife die? The Bradys: What’s with Marcia’s new face and Bobby’s blonde hair Married…With Children: What kind of hair spray does Peg use? Thirtysomething: Why did Nancy take Elliot back? What do Gary and Susanna see in each other? The Flintstones: How does Barney’s shirt stay on if he has no shoulders? Where do Fred and Wilma plug in their TV?

Worst BehaviorThe Brady Bunch: The Brady children once made Alice feel under-appreciated.

Best Reason To WatchThe Brady Bunch: This is what life should be. The Bradys: They’re all grown-ups now! Married…With Children: Terry Rakolta hates it. Thirtysomething (Tie) This is your life. This isn’t your life. The Flintstones: This is what life might have been.

Best Reason Not To WatchThe Brady Bunch: Blurred vision from rerun overdoses. The Bradys: You’re all grown-ups now. Married…With Children: She has a point. Thirtysomething: After a while, you think it’s real. The Flintstones: The Simpsons